Top business stories of 2012

Facebook IPO: Social networking website, Facebook, made its stock market debut in May. The much vaunted $104bn flotation - the largest ever by a US technology company - was marred by Nasdaq's handling of the float. Facebook's IPO was delayed by about 30 minutes following problems with Nasdaq's exchange systems. The pause left brokers with million of shares' worth of unconfirmed trades, the results of which were not known for two hours. Morgan Stanley, the lead underwriter for Facebook's IPO, has also agreed to pay $5m to Massachusetts' securities regulators after they accused it of disclosing a revenue shortfall only to certain analysts and not the general public. However, the bank does not admit guilt.Picture: AP